I Got My Baby Back...

So last Monday morning Sean left to go into NYC and do some in-studio work on the new Cold Cave record. This means I was left cold and alone all week. I toughed it out though, because I support my man. It was a big deal for him to go play guitar at Electric Lady Studios and since he is not a bragger, I'll steal some of his thunder. Those of you "in the know" may know all about this famous NY studio, I however did not, and for the rest of you who may be like me, here's what WIKIPEDIA has to say...
Electric Lady Studios, at 52 West 8th Street, in New York City's Greenwich Village, is a recording studio originally built by JIMI HENDRIX and designed by John Storyk in 1970. A variety of artists have recorded music there, including John Lennon, AC/DC, Led Zeppelin, Carly Simon, The Clash, Peter Frampton, The Rolling Stones, David Bowie, Al Green, Dave Matthews Band, Christina Aguilera, Bad Religion, Stevie Wonder, Cactus, Goldfrapp, Greezy Wheels, Billy Cobham, Curtis Mayfield, Mahavishnu Orchestra, Lou Reed, Mandrill, Muse, Arctic Monkeys, The Early Years, Sinéad O'Connor, Billy Joel, Billy Idol, Nas, The Mars Volta, Frank Zappa, Mike Oldfield, The Magnetic Fields, Guns N' Roses (Chinese Democracy sessions), Elkie Brooks, Patti Smith, John McLaughlin, Kiss, Van Halen, Weezer, Interpol, Ryan Adams, Steve Earle, Monster Magnet, The Pink Spiders, Deee Lite, Chris Braide, Rancid, D'Angelo, Wolfmother, Miley Cyrus, The Big Pink, Erykah Badu, Common (as well as the majority of the Soulquarians), Brandon Caie and Metric.

So, if you're into music you can see how this would be kind of a big deal.

Why am I telling you all of this? Because I was COLD AND ALONE ALL WEEK! I was very excited to get my husband back last night and to celebrate I made a nice dinner of creamed spinach with olive oil, garlic and tomatoes over wheat rotini...

And Sean enjoyed it...And we popped a bottle of very expensive champagne...

That was sarcasm by the way. You may not be able to see it but the price tag reads $8.99And then we drank the champagne with a delicious assortment of snacks... And then we took this silly picture together...Doesn't he look happy to be home?
Then we went to bed and I'll spare you the pictures of that. Wait! What?

And Then We Got Hibachi...

After our long day of hard work at the Build Your Own 2 Seminar, we all went out for a nice hibachi dinner at our local Japanese restaurant. Our chef's name was "Ben" and he was awesome! My wonderful husband Sean began to taunt Ben while he was juggling spatulas and throwing eggs, and Ben retaliated by throwing food at Sean, sometimes intentionally missing his mouth and by squirting gallons of Sake down his throat. Well matched adversaries.

Which leads us to one of the funniest moments of the night... The Sake was in the same style of squeeze bottle as the oil for the grill. Don't worry! No harm came to Sean! But, the first time Ben sprayed the Sake at Sean, and continued squeezing the bottle until it was practically empty, SOBA thought it WAS the oil! His face was priceless as he thought we were all just sitting there laughing as Sean drank oil. He was horrified and I wish I got a picture of his face. So if we weren't already laughing hard enough at Sean and Ben and their Sake duel, it was even funnier finding out BJ thought Sean was chugging oil! Gross.
Brett from Pulse with BJ "SOBA" Johnson from Workhorse Irons, Katie From Pulse rocking bunny ears courtesy of Ben Reigle from Off the Map Tattoo
Sean gets Sake bombed! Point-blank range.

Build Your Own 2...

On October 16th we hosted the second "Build Your Own" workshop. The first was held at the Paradise Tattoo convention in September 2009.
http://pulsetattooblog.blogspot.com/2009/10/build-your-own-was-great-time.html
The first event was a great success and because of the limited amount of spots available, we have had several requests to "DO IT AGAIN!" After announcing the date for the new seminar, all 15 spots were filled in just 2 days! It's not that hard to believe when you think about what you get. BJ "SOBA" Johnson from Workhorse Irons flew in for the weekend, and every artist attending had a choice to build any of our machines or any of his. So you got to spend the day with us at Pulse learning all about how we do things here and how BJ does them back at Workhorse, build & tune your own machine and Katie and I served up a nice lunch! We had a great group of tattooers in here for the day, and I like to think everyone had a good time.

Here are some photos of the action...

Opening discussion with BJ from Workhorse as well as Joe, Tim and Brett from Pulse

A room full of artists ready to learn
Coil Wiring with BJ and JoeSpring Dynamics with Brett and Tim
Coil Winding with Tim Georgina was the only female tattooer to participate and one of the brave few who attempted to spin a coil herself. Go Georgina!

LUNCH BREAK! Katie and I made our delicious and now famous French Toast, Maple, Bacon Cupcakes. She did most of the work, as I am no baker, however I am a bacon connoisseur, so she left the frying up to me. We make a great team. I think they were amazing! The rest of our lunch was catered by a local sandwich shop, but I think we did a great job laying it out. Ha. Mmm... After lunch everyone got busy building and tuning their machines.

After everyone tuned their machines to their own specifications and satisfaction, we opened Pulse for our very first "Get It Yourself" shopping night. It was the first time we've had customers come into our building and browse and shop on their own. They actually had to form a line to check out. It was great.

I think the day was a success and I think we're going to do it again in the spring! If anyone who attended is reading this, please comment to let us know what you thought!

The Sun Always Shines on Greatness...

We had a huge and beautiful rainbow over Pulse yesterday. I may have been a little slow about trying to capture it, and it was fading fast by the time I got out front with my Iphone. I think you can still see it here and imagine how magnificent it may have been in it's prime.

Book Club 10/1/10...

Tonight's book club discussion was of "Little Bee" by Chris Cleave. Mr. Cleave has just made it onto my "favorite authors" list with this book, and I am looking forward to reading his first novel "Incendiary" as soon as possible!
Here's a quick synopsis of the book from it's publisher Simon & Schuster...
Little Bee, a young Nigerian refugee, has just been released from the British immigration detention center where she has been held under horrific conditions for the past two years, after narrowly escaping a traumatic fate in her homeland of Nigeria. Alone in a foreign country, without a family member, friend, or pound to call her own, she seeks out the only English person she knows. Sarah is a posh young mother and magazine editor with whom Little Bee shares a dark and tumultuous past.

They first met on a beach in Nigeria, where Sarah was vacationing with her husband, Andrew, in an effort to save their marriage after an affair, and their brief encounter has haunted each woman for two years. Now together, they face a disturbing past and an uncertain future with the help of Sarah’s four-year-old son, Charlie, who refuses to take off his Batman costume. A sense of humor and an unflinching moral compass allow each woman, and the reader, to believe that even in the face of unspeakable odds, humanity can prevail.

I LOVED this book! Loved, loved, loved it! Chris Cleaves wrote an amazing and captivating story, peppered with highly developed characters who you can't help but love. The cliff hanger ending really makes you wonder. I love a good ending! This is one of the best books I've read in a very long time. I liked it so much, I actually went to the author's website and couldn't stop myself from leaving a gushing fan message. I never do these things! To my absolute surprise and delight, he replied to my message on his site AND sent me an email to further answer my questions! I was so excited you would've thought I was a teenager again getting an autograph from Motley Crue. I guess I'm just getting nerdier as I get older.

Everyone at book club was in agreeance... This book is awesome! Read it!
www.chriscleave.com

If you've read the book, I'd love to know what you think. Or if you want to read along, next meeting we're discussing "The Red Queen" by Phillipa Gregory. I'm about half way through it and so far I like it a lot.

The Big E 2010...

Sean and I went to the Big E for the whole day on Sunday. I was going to make a lengthy post with pictures of all the food we ate that will eventually cause our first heart attacks, but then I remembered this: http://jessicapulse.blogspot.com/2009/10/big-e.html

I blogged every little thing we did last year and one of the great things about the Big E is that it NEVER changes! Same food, same vendors, same fun. I even ate the Craz-E-Burger again!

I made three trips to the fair this year, so I may have to invest in the season pass next year. It's just so close to our house!